Rob Davies
Russell Martin couldn’t fail to be pleased at what he saw yesterday as his team took apart Norwich City at Carrow Road thanks to goals from Joel Latibeaudiere, Liam Cullen and Olivier Ntcham.
Such was the dominance the Canaries were down to ten man before half time as the home defence couldn’t contain Cullen on numerous occasions – who thought we’d have said that six months ago?
All in all a fantastic day after what has been an excellent few weeks which has firmly risen confidence for next season amongst all the fanbase, even those who questioned the regime during that poor run of form (myself included).
Martin said: “It was a beautiful day for us all, the team, the fans who travelled, it’s a long way, I’m just really grateful to the players and I’m so proud of them.
“We started the game a little bit sloppy but after that, when the lads showed real care for each other with the ball, we were brilliant, even with 11v11.
“We deserved to be 2-0 up in my opinion. We scored a brilliant goal, Liam Cullen’s goal is an outstanding team goal. Then the player gets sent off and it’s a test of mentality.
“You can go gung ho to try and sore four or five, but Norwich still pose a threat with the players they’ve got on the pitch, so the discipline and mentality to keep working until the moment arrives naturally rather than trying to force it, the ball speed, I’m really proud of them. It made it an easier 45 minutes than it could have been.
“We score an outstanding goal with Olivier as well. I’m really grateful that they’ve given us all a day like that.”
But if there’s one element of concern, it’s the manager’s frustration at a lack of movement with contract talks for players namely Latibeaudiere.
Martin dismisses the chance of retaining the services of Ryan Manning but says that the Latibeaudiere situation is much more achievable and admits it would have been done if he was in control of the matter.
“I just don’t think we can get to a financial position that will keep Ryan here. With Joel Latibeaudiere we can and we should. We need to.
“It’s a source of frustration for me at the moment that we haven’t got that done. If I was in charge of it, he would have that.
“His attitude, professionalism, character, commitment to us in what we do, he’s a leader and a cultural architect. Now he’s settled into a position he’s been incredible.
“I implore us to do that, and we need to do that because you can’t let someone like that go out of the building. We have to get that done.”
